Hey all!
First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to get to know me a little better.
Now let's get straight into it! I started my coding journey a little over a year now but it was in the back of my mind for a while, since 2018 to be exact.
I always saw the tech industry as something that I wasn't smart enough to be part of but was super interested in the jobs my tech friends had. It always sounded like a dream job. It wasn't until 2020 around COVID times that I received a call from Columbia University that they were enrolling people for their cyber security bootcamp and thought that I would be a good fit. I don't know how they were able to get in contact with me but during that time I couldn't enroll due to financial reasons. But that call made me think...... could I be a good fit? Is this something that I could actually pursue?
Around this time, I just got accepted into Baruch College as a Finance major and that in itself was a huge achievement for me. But my interest in finance was slowly fading as I learned more about the industry. For the first time I realized that I needed to pursue a career that suited my personality, that's the only way I would feel fulfilled and happy with my daily life.
For a while I took a pause to figure out what I actually wanted to do, as I started to do more research in the tech industry I realized this was it. I ultimately decided on Software Engineering and started looking into bootcamps. I thought it was cost effective and dedicating six months to an intense program was the right decision, I was determined to commit and make this my path.
I loved the idea of being a Software Engineer because it's mentally stimulating, it challenges your thinking and pushes you to not only find a solution but THE best solution. It involves collaborative teamwork and independent effort, the perfect balance.
I enrolled in Rutger's Full Stack Coding Bootcamp and before starting I was learning HTML, CSS and JavaScript on Codecademy for about 4 months to acquaint myself with the terminology and fundamental technologies. This further confirmed my interest, it was also addicting learning, coding, testing and getting successful results! I was so happy that I finally found something I could see myself doing for the rest of my career.
I received bad news the week before the bootcamp started, my step father's (who I considered my father) cancer got worse and he was admitted into the ICU, he wasn't doing well. This broke my heart, my sister and I drove down to Florida from New Jersey to see him right away. I was happy that I was able to see him but I knew it would be the last time. He then passed away my second day into the bootcamp.
The brain fog, the grief and sadness was all I was consumed of for a good month. This set me back tremendously, I was conflicted. Should I quit the bootcamp while I had the chance or push through? What would J.C. want me to do? (my step father's nick name)
Eventually I decided to buckle up, shut down the grief and get to work. While this wasn't the most mentally healthy way to go about it, I had gotten this far and wasn't going to give up. This is what J.C. would have wanted me to do and if I allowed it, I knew he would guide me.
I had a lot of catching up to do, I attended tutoring sessions and revisited all the work we had done so far while still attending classes three times a week and getting weekly projects done. I didn't see any friends or family for the rest of the bootcamp.
I ended up graduating in October 2023, I was filled with so much abundance and happiness to finally get through it despite the challenges a long the way. Today, I am still learning, I revamped my projects, was in a temporary internship for about four months and connected with other developers on discord who I am now working with to build another MERN Stack project. My journey is still ongoing and I hope to soon land a job as a Software Engineer.
I hope that my story helps those who feel like they aren't capable of pursuing a career in tech for whatever reason it may be. Life is hard sometimes but when you find something you love to do keep going. It's very rare that you find something you're insanely passionate about and want to pursue, so cherish it.